The Riverside Robert Nighthawk's suitcase

The Riverside Hotel is full of history.  You don't get your own bath.  You don't get working TV ( the owner, Frank Ratcliff, says "They wanted to charge me $400 per month for cable.  I told 'em to keep their cable and I'll keep my 400.  Nobody comes here to watch TV."  He's right.)  You do get a comfortable bed in a room that's been slept in by Sam Cooke or Muddy Waters or Howlin Wolf or John Lee Hooker. But mainly, you get the historian of the blues, the man who knows how to
spin the facts into stories, Frank, "just call me Rat" Ratcliff.
Ike Turner wrote 'Rocket 88' in the Riverside, and Rat remembers listening to so many greats practicing in the lower level of the hotel.  "I never did play," Rat says, "But I know all the songs."
In the picture, Rat's showing us (me and 4 Harley-riding dudes from the Netherlands) Robert Nighthawk's suitcase.
Rat's mother bought the place in 1944.  Until 1938, it had been the 'blacks only' hospital in Clarksdale.  Rat doesn't know why they closed it, although the false publicity about Bessie Smith's death may have had something to do with the closing.  After its closing, black people had to travel 50 miles to the nearest 'blacks only' hospital.  Rat pondered that for a minute, then said, "Well, segregation wasn't so bad for Mama.  The only hotel that would have all those great musicians was the Riverside, and I met 'em all as a kid."